Networks, such as for example, Ethernet networks and Synchronous Optical Networks (SONET), provide network architecture for high speed data transmissions. Current network architecture may comprise a vast number of components, connections, logical channels and physical channels located around the globe that carry data from endpoint to endpoint.
An individual or an enterprise customer may subscribe for services over the network. For example, a customer may subscribe to a network for Virtual Private Network (VPN) access. VPN provides protocol that provides an access provider the ability to provide multiple logical channels, e.g., virtual circuits, over a single physical channel.
Occasionally, a customers may report problems on the network affecting their service. Currently, when a problem is reported, troubleshooting the problem is performed manually by technicians. However, as discussed above, due to the vast size of the network architecture, manually troubleshooting the root cause of the problem with technicians may be extremely time consuming or expensive. Moreover, in network architectures utilizing multiple logical channels on a single physical channel, e.g. VPN, Virtual Local Area Networks (VLAN) and the like, identifying which logical channel has a problem may be difficult. Consequently, service to the customer may be affected due to the network being down or degraded for an extended period of time, thereby creating customer dissatisfactions. In turn, the extended periods of down time to the network may have an impact on the revenue of a network service provider.
Therefore, there is a need for a method for providing an automated diagnostics of networks using multiple virtual circuits.